Wish I had a cure for IBS

[fayanora]

So I am apparently so sensitive to onion now that I had an IBS incident from em-effing BEEF BROTH that had onion and garlic in it. Which makes grocery shopping extremely hard now, because you know what has onions in it? Lots and lots of things. Do you know how many salad dressings have onion in them? EVERY SINGLE MOTHERFUCKING ONE OF THEM. Even the

Comments

[acelightning]

I don't have IBS, but I'm violently allergic to onions, garlic, and all their relatives, even in barely perceptible concentrations. It's not really "allergy" - I don't go into anaphylaxis; I "only" experience, shall we say, rapid-onset bidirectional high-pressure expulsion. (And as time goes on, the list of foods that have this effect on me keeps expanding. It now includes all members of the cabbage family, tomatoes and tomato products, mushrooms, vinegar, and all fish and seafood and their by-products.)

And, as you point out, just about ALL prepared foods contain traces of onion and/or garlic. A lot of low-end burger restaurants prepare their patties with "seasonings" already mixed in at the factory, and their grilled chicken is pre-marinated, while the breading on the fried chicken products is also seasoned. And I can't eat anything that's been fried in the same oil used for onion rings or "blossoming onions" (or for fish or seafood, for that matter). In higher quality restaurants, it is possible, at least some of the time, to get

[fayanora]

I've been using mostly oregano and basil. I don't know what rosemary tastes like, nor marjoram, and I'm not feeling that adventurous.

Ginger I seem to be able to have, though. But I only like it in other stuff, like blackberry-ginger dark chocolate, or ginger snaps. On it's own, it's too intense.

I've been trying to find low-sodium version of my brand of soy sauce, La Choy, but I haven't been able to find it lately.* Greasy foods and high-salt foods are things I can eat fine sometimes, but if I have a headache, even a tiny one, they make it much worse, and I am highly prone to headaches. Headaches that become migraines if I take anything other than liquid-gel ibuprofen as soon as I feel them coming on. And I have been so prone to headaches since I was a kid.

* = And it has to be La Choy, because all other soy sauce brands taste like utter shit to me.

[acelightning]

Ginger can be used in "savory" (non-sweet) foods - it's almost a given in most Chinese and Japanese dishes. Add either ground/powdered ginger, or chopped or crushed fresh gingerroot (peel it first), "to taste", to just about any stir-fry

[fayanora]

"What you need to look for is La Choy "LITE" soy sauce, with green plastic around the cap. "

Yes, I've gotten it before. But every store I've tried lately doesn't even have a place for it on the shelf anymore, so I'm wondering if it's been discontinued.

[kengr]

Black pepper (and, I believe, white pepper) aren't related to the "bell" peppers at all.

"Red" pepper may or may not be, but I think that's often paprika.

I've got some rosemary here so you can try sniffing it (since "raw" rosemary looks like tiny pine needles, tasting it won't do you much good).

If you hit Trader Joes, see if they have *powdered* rosemary. I might even be willing to settle for "crushed" rosemary. Find out how much it is for a container (price and size of container).

Do the same check at any place else you go. I've already checked Alberton's and WinCo. Need to check QFC, New Seasons and then the more obscure places.

Oh yeah, look on the packages for the wweb addresses for companies and contact them to *ask* if they have garlic or onion in them.

Though those *usually* aren't lumped into "spices".

[acelightning]

Black pepper and white pepper are from the same plant, except that white pepper has the outer skin of the pepper berry removed before it's dried. It's less flavorful, but it doesn't leave little black particles in a pristine white sauce.

"Sweet" bell peppers, paprika, pimento, and all hot peppers, from the mildly spicy Italian frying peppers to the eat-at-your-own-risk Indonesian "ghost pepper", are all members of the same family. In fact, if you plant, say, jalapenos, in one part of your garden and sweet bell peppers in another spot, they may cross-breed, and you'll get slighty hot "sweet" peppers.

Szechuan pepper is the berry of a tree sometimes called "mountain ash", unrelated to either of the others. It produces a tingling sensation in the mouth, not exactly "hot", but adding yet another flavor dimension to certain Asian dishes.

For spices, and a lot of information about them, along with recipes and other stuff, go to Penzey's Spices. They are some of the nicest people imaginable.

And, yes, garlic and onions are often lumped

[fayanora]

Cool!